Boca Park Campaign Haunts Homeowner

June 15, 1999|By JILL ROSEN Staff Writer

BOCA RATON — A few years ago, Electa Pace was leading the charge to persuade city officials to turn beachfront land near her home into a park.

On Monday, Pace sued those same city officials, even though they did just what she wanted. Now that they have invested in the land, Pace says officials are making her life miserable to force her off the property and build the park she pushed so hard for.

"It's the ultimate irony," said Pace's attorney, Robert Sweetapple.

Sweetapple filed the suit on Monday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court. It alleges inverse condemnation, claiming the city of Boca Raton and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District effectively condemned Pace's property, or took away its value, when they bought the surrounding property, then let it deteriorate.

The park district levies a tax on city and unincorporated Boca Raton property to finance recreation projects.

The park district bought the 15.2-acre Ocean Strand property in 1994 for $11.88 million. The purchase came after the tireless efforts of Pace, who urged the deal after a developer announced plans to put 79 condominiums and six beachfront homes on the site.

Pace, who has owned an unusual, Asian-influenced home on a half-acre plot for more than 30 years, was aghast at the thought of her woodsy street, thick with mangroves and wild animals, being plowed over for condos. So she appealed to every public entity she could think of, mailing photos and pleas even to federal agencies in Washington.

On Monday, a fretful Pace said she still wouldn't want the property planted with high-rises, but she also is very sorry she campaigned so hard for the park.

"It's been absolutely thankless," said Pace, who along with William Veit, the owner of the house directly west of Pace's, are the only two things standing between the city and the park. Veit, who no longer lives in his Ocean Strand house, is not involved in the lawsuit.

Pace said that since the city and the park district bought the land all around hers, hers has diminished in value. Pace has pictures of garbage piled high after vagrants moved into the vacant properties that the city acquired. She also has a picture of an abandoned swimming pool that she says became infested with mosquitoes because the city didn't drain it.

The city eventually demolished the properties, but only after Pace had become completely exasperated. "They're deliberately not maintaining the property," said Pace, a senior who declines to reveal her exact age. "They're trying to squeeze me out."

City Councilwoman Wanda Thayer said on Monday that Pace was being treated poorly.

With the suit, Pace is asking for either compensation for the loss of her property or that the court declare Ocean Strand a private road with private access to the beach. If that area were declared private, the city would lose a significant part of the future park.

Pace would sell the city her property if they gave her a fair price for the land, its easements and the house, she said.

According to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's Office, the property has a market value of $141,622.

But Sweetapple said the land, sandwiched between the Intracoastal and the Ocean, is worth more on the order of $750,000 to $1 million.

Jill Rosen can be reached at jrosen@sun-sentinel.com or at 561-243-6641.